The fintech wave has arrive on the shore of many Asian countries, with banks and regulators alike from countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and India reacting to the disruption.

Sri Lanka being part of the global economy is not immune to this trend. Its financial services sector is on the fast track to entering this new era of banking with innovative initiatives like augmented reality, digital wallets and the National Payments Platform coming out of the local sector.

The organisers of the long-running BankTech Asia Series said that the event aims to bring together local and international senior level bankers to discuss and explore how the Sri Lanka financial services sector should navigate this new landscape.

“We’ve been present in Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines while the fintech conversation was still nascent and witnessed the trend explode into what it is today. We hope to take our experience in facilitating these conversations to Sri Lanka and help shape the future of the industry” – Vincent Fong, General Manager, Knowledge Group.

The organisers has identified remittance as one of the core areas that is ripe for disruption as it makes up 9%-10% of the country’s GDP. Based on the World Bank’s estimate, it is widely believed that 50% of remittances are done through informal channels which has exorbitant fees that can go as high as 10%-15% of the principle.

Another area that was identified for disruption is the digital payments space with only 2% of the population utilising the internet to buy things and pay their bills. There’s tremendous opportunity for incumbent banks or fintech start-ups to become to become dominant this unoccupied space

This two-day conference happening on the 21st and 22nd March 2017 in Taj Samudra Colombo will present various local and international experts from the industry as follows: